This short research project used data from the GCRO’s 2013 Quality of Life Survey to develop an index of social isolation in the city-region. The index was developed using six survey questions that relate to a respondent’s self, external or inflicted, detachment from society.

This map depicts those municipal wards with some level of social isolation in yellow, orange, and red. Interestingly, when overlaid with a mapping of gated suburbs and estates, a correlation between social isolation and gated estates is evident. Similarly, peripheral township areas built under apartheid also demonstrate levels of social isolation, albeit without gated suburbs or estates.

The mind-set and concomitant spatial challenges required to improve levels of social isolation are signi cant in the city-region.